Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Here are the benefits Jamie is requesting:
- travel by private jet
- 5 star hotel accommodations
- travel expenses - Unlimited
- business dinners 5 nights per week
- business lunches 5 days per week
- parking spots at Dodger Stadium
- flowers in the office
- making Dodger Legends available for events without charge
- provision of Dodger autographed items as requested for use in business and charitable activities
- hair and makeup for Dodger events
- access to team doctors for McCourt family members
- access to the owner's suite for Dodger home games and non-baseball events at the stadium
- Tickets to All-Star games and playoff games -- even if the Dodgers aren't playing
- a pass to all National League games

Total living expenses for Jamie come out to about $6M / year, of which roughly $4M goes to the homes. And, elsewhere in the court filings, she wants access to the Charing Cross Road indoor pool (who doesn't?). And, she cites the sudden termination of her position as Dodgers CEO, and current unemployed state, as part of the rationale why she merits pendente lite (which I thought meant "pasta cooked firm but not hard," but apparently means "pending the litigation") support (an interesting twist on Frank's firing).

Reading through the rest of the court filings yields a number of juicy tidbits. In the document, the sections on Jamie's "integral role with the Dodgers" seems pretty compelling; it's clear that she wasn't just the owners wife, if she did all the things that she cites. I don't know how the Dodger Stadium 90090 zipcode hoo-hah made the list of "accomplishments," but even that notwithstanding, there are a lot of other tangible items on there besides a irrelevant marketing deal with the USPS.

On the scary side, the section "Frank Begins to Rewrite History..." has some scary allegations that admits the McCourts are "highly leveraged", and the move to transfer ownership to Frank reflected a move to California ("a community property state") and an attempt to shield assets from the McCourts' many creditors. Or, as Jamie contends, was this an attempt to transfer property ownership solely to Frank?

Jamie claims that she had been trying to keep plans to file for divorce secret until after the 2009 postseason, despite the fact that the last four months of her tenure as CEO "were very difficult." Looking back on how Frank asked Jamie to move her business office out of Dodger Stadium, that she had to get his approval for expense reimbursements of any sort, that she had to review all appointments including social engagements to Frank--it is hard to see how Jamie could have performed her job as CEO with all of this oversight.

How much did Jamie McCourt get paid to be the Dodgers CEO? The court filings indicate it was around $2M/year, though Frank would get $5-6M a year in salary or distributions. When you think about all the living expenses that both McCourts pushed through the business (potentially including all first-class airtravel, eight people to work on and in the McCourts' myriad homes, $5000/night hotel rooms around the world, a skin doctor and monthly hair colorer for Jamie, membership in no fewer than seven country clubs, and three 24-hour security officers (down from eight)), that's a pretty lavish lifestyle indeed.

In a way, though it started coming out right at the inopportune time of the playoffs, but not much, I'm glad this is all coming out now and not on Opening Day or during the season. Get it all out in the offseason...

Bartender asked me how long am I stuck here and I said till the Dodgers win a game. He said ahhhh your a football fan. The two dutch bags started talking Yankees. Time to put the iPod on move to corner, lower my hat and finish my overpriced whiskey.

Someone kill me or maybe I am already almost gone stuck in a socal hotel like Tony Soprano when he almost died. I see a bright light in the distance....

Holy shit your right this isn't whiskey it is prune juice. Two more nights of purgatory with liquor. Why was that one lady at the bar so friendly with everyone. She found my depression so interesting till I said I have no cash.